Research & Publications
Research & Publications
The mild-mannered bespectacled Dilip Kumar BV is a force to reckon with in the domain of securities’ services. His track record in product management and development has been impressive, to say the least. A shining star of IRMA’s impressive galaxy of luminaries he recently spoke to another alumnus of the institute, Meher Gadekar.
Read the rather entertaining, free-wheeling interview.
MG: Hi Dilip! Nice to meet you after a long time, buddy. What happened to your hair, man? You had such a wonderful head full of curly hair.
DK: Once I had them, now I don’t. (Moves his hand over his near- bald pate). But surely, we’re not meeting to discuss my hair loss, Gadekar.
MG: That’s right, Dilip. I hear that you’ve become a big man now.
DK: (Smiles, his usual warm smile). Oh no, I’m still the guy you knew from our IRMA days. Besides we were also floor-mates apart from being floor or F toppers.
MG: OK, so let’s begin at the beginning. Where were you born and where did you do your schooling from?
DK: I was born in Chennai and moved to Bangalore at the age of two. So, Bangalore became my home. I went to the National High School in Basavangudi and did my PUC at National College, again in Basavangudi. Subsequently, I joined NITK (National Institute of Technology Karnataka) in Surathkal from where I completed my B.Tech. (Electrical Power).
MG: After completing your B. Tech what made you opt for IRMA and rural management?
DK: Like most people of my
generation, we were poor. I could not afford to pay my way through college. I had been accepted by a few universities in the US that were willing to give me teaching assistance-ships. At the same time, I was also accepted by IRMA. I chose IRMA because it was the only
management institute offering 100 percent scholarship. Besides, the US Government rejected my visa application on grounds of my being a single child. So, IRMA became my default choice.
MG: Where did you work after having graduating from IRMA?
DK: I spent five years at NDDB; initially at Bidaj in Barejadi implementing IT solutions for the farm. Subsequently, I moved to Calcutta as the IT Head, Eastern Region and later I was promoted (by about two-and-a-half years I think) to the position of Executive and moved to Bangalore as Head, IT, Southern Region.
After leaving NDDB, I joined S.B Billimoria & Co. (SBB, now part of Deloitte Touche) as a Senior Consultant at Bangalore and worked there for three years.
MG: How did you decide to set up a company? When was it set up? What was it called? What was its growth like in the first 7-8 years?
DK: I left SBB to start my own software company (along with another NITK classmate). We invested Rs. 5,000 each as equity. We were a small product company focused on building non-banking financial software products (lease, hire purchase, bills discounting and an integrated accounting solution). The name of the company was "Advance Infotech Private Ltd". We established a market leadership in Karnataka for our NBFC solutions and built a team size of 35 software professionals during this period. Our turnover was small- in the range of Rs. 5–8 lakh per annum those days. The Indian market was yet to mature at that point in terms of recognizing value and paying adequately for software products.
MG: When and why did you decide to sell your software company?
DK: In late 1997, because of our reputation, we received a random call from ICICI Bank in Mumbai asking us to bid for their software project. (By the way, ICICI was big in NBFC products those days). Even though our product was good our company was very small for ICICI to do business with us.
I then took it upon myself to request the then MD of ICICI, Shri KV Kamath, for a meeting in order to pitch our strengths to him, among other things. He was kind enough to grant me 30 minutes of his
time. After hearing
my story he pointed out that "the only problem is that you are a very small company". We needed to find a larger IT company to buy us out or our product out. If that were to happen then, maybe, we stood a better chance.
This was a very big order for us in 1997: in the range of Rs. 1 crore. Scouting around we came across a friendly company with a similar profile but one that was much larger. A few months down the line we were able to successfully merge ourselves with this company. Advance Infotech Private Ltd was sold lock, stock, and barrel to Datacons Private Limited.
MG: How did you decide to set up another company? When was it launched? What was its name and what was its growth in the first 7-8 years?
DK: My partner at Advance Infotech and I were ushered into Datacons Private Limited as founding members with equity participation. This amalgamation, subsequently, fetched us a much larger software order from ICICI. I, along with my team, lived out of suitcases in Mumbai for a year and a half as we implemented this solution successfully.
I was probably amongst the youngest in that decade to have successfully sold a Re. 1 core solution to an Indian client! Mind you, selling at that proportion to foreign clients was not such a big deal but selling to an Indian client… that was a very big deal!
MG: When and why did you decide to sell it?
DK: After having delivered the solution to Mumbai, I returned to Bangalore for a short break to think things through. I was pondering-what next? One always has some mixed feelings after having concluded such a large project. After all, what could be bigger than this? I was besieged with that type of feeling when the time for our Board meeting rolled around. The company (Datacons) was seeking to expand into the US and Asia. In strategic terms, the US expansion involved services (people) whereas the Asia expansion was about financial software products.
The then CEO of Datacons was asked to head over to Malaysia and start Asia’s business. Due to personal reasons he could not say yes. Then, the Board turned to me asked "Can you do it?" Since I had been seeking bigger pastures without blinking I replied, "Yes, when do I start?"
That is how, in mid-1999, I landed in Kuala Lumpur to set up Datacons Asia Pacific Sdn Bhd and started
focusing on building the business across Asia.
Over the next six to seven years I devoted myself exclusively to building our business across Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, and Thailand. It became a runaway success as in Malaysia alone we had captured a market share of 68 percent of the banking and financial services’s egment by 2006.
This growth also brought our company to the attention of 3i Infotech Limited (an ICICI Bank venture those days). This was a listed company which was very ambitious about fast tracking its growth. There was the usual dance between the sought and the suitor and as the valuation was good, we agreed to sell.
3i Infotech wanted deep Asian penetration and I had built Datacons Asia which delivered precisely that footprint to them. So, it turned out to be a good deal for both companies.
MG: How & when did you land up in Singapore?
DK: Post sale, while I was still in Malaysia working as Senior Vice President of 3i Infotech, I got a call from somebody in Deutsche Bank (DB) in Singapore saying they wanted to speak with me. It so happens that the COO of Prudential in Singapore had recommended my name to Deutsche (that is because Prudential had worked with me in Malaysia).
DB asked me to head over to Singapore to build and launch their Investor Services Product (Transfer Agency) across Asia. Thus, I moved to Singapore and have, since, settled in there. I had a whale of a time replicating what I had done as an entrepreneur for myself. Doing it for a global bank at a much bigger scale was something else. For all practical purposes, I lived and worked like an entrepreneur at DB. I felt lucky!
MG: Great! Who are your idols??
DK: Shri K.V Kamath, Rahul Dravid, and Rafael Nadal.
MG: And your ideals?
DK: Perseverance, compassion, and integrity.
MG: What drives or motivates you in life? What are your future plans?
DK: Over the years I have recognized the fact that I am creative by nature-you cannot box me into one role or shape. So, I am always searching to do something that makes a difference somewhere, to somebody. This gives me a lot of satisfaction.
I am now working on a product that will, hopefully, help solve some of the problems faced by the Indian industry. A lot of my time outside of office goes into conceptualizing and working on an idea. I can share more after the idea becomes a reality.
At 50, I decided to convert my childhood passion into a reality and am now in the process of becoming a musician and acquiring formal training in Carnatic vocal music.
MG: Any message that you may wish to give to young managers and rural managers?
DK: "Do what you like and do it well". There is a meaning in the word ‘expert’. That is the only message I wish to give. Don’t chase money. Let money chase you. This is something that I believe in ardently. You could say that I have followed this dictum.
MG: What do you currently do? What is your designation/role?
DK: My current role is very different compared to my previous ones. It is very challenging all the same.
I am working with Standard Chartered as a Programme Lead and am responsible for implementing enterprise-wise stress testing program, data quality framework under Basel guidelines, and transitioning the bank’s Retail MI to an Enterprise Data Architecture
MG: Some numbers would be welcome, Dilip. For how much did you sell your first company?
DK: It was an equity vs company’s assets and liabilities swap. My partner and I walked away with a percentage of equity each in Datacons with all our employees absorbed and all assets and liabilities discharged satisfactorily.
MG: For how much did you sell your second company?
DK: Gadekar, we got a valuatuon that was almost eight times our annual turnover. As ours was a private limited company I cannot speak numbers without my partner’s permission.